


one, two...

by orphan_account



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Music AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:27:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25022374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Phil wants to learn how to play guitar, so he decides to take lessons where he meets Dan, his instructor.
Relationships: Dan Howell & Phil Lester, Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27
Collections: Phandom Reverse Bang 2020





	one, two...

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the phandom reverse bang! Thanks so much to my team (artist: julian-is-tired & beta: strawberrymilkcvlt) for help through this!

Placing his guitar in the case, Phil zipped it up and put it on his back. He should be used to the weight of it at this point, and most days he was. The only thing different about this time carrying it around was that he was going to his first lesson. Rubbing his eyes, Phil carefully went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water onto his face. He was nervous and he wasn’t really sure why. There wasn’t a huge reason to be nervous. Unless his teacher ended up being a not so nice fellow. Maybe then that would warrant being nervous. 

As he gathered himself in the bathroom, his cat, Cheesesteak, walked in meowing. He looked down and smiled at him. 

“I forgot to feed you, didn’t I?” He asked. Cheesesteak just meowed in response. Bending down, Phil picked him up, scratching the underside of his chin, and took him to the kitchen where his food was at. He sat him down, Cheesesteak rubbing up against his legs, and gave him a can of food. Placing it in his food dish, Phil ushered him over and threw the can out. He made sure he had enough water to last a little while, as Phil wasn’t entirely sure when he would be back. 

“See you, buddy,” Phil said, walking to the door. He grabbed his keys from the key hook, which was by the door for some reason. He was too lazy to make it look nice somewhere else. Leaving, Phil made sure the door was locked behind him and headed down the seven flight stair journey. It’s what he got really for living in a place where the lifts were broken most of the time. Thankfully going down wasn’t the problem, it was going up. 

The music shop he was going to was only a few blocks away from where he lived. It was a nice little walk when he went there before to look at some stuff. It was where he purchased his guitar a few months ago. He had gone in, unsure of what to get, other than he wanted an electric guitar. But as soon as he saw the Gibson SG he had now. Something about the color and style made him fall in love and he bought it that very day. Which may not have been the brightest idea. 

There wasn’t much traffic, and he was still pretty early. Making a quick, last-minute decision, Phil ran to the local coffee shop and just grabbed an iced coffee and headed to the music shop. He was hoping they wouldn’t mind, but it was supposed to get hotter throughout the day, and he wanted something cold. Walking down the block the shop was on, he felt his hands getting sweaty. Phil wasn’t sure, but. He wished it would stop. 

Pushing the door open, he heard a chime and walked in. It was the same as he had been in before. There was a faint smell of metal, he assumed, but he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because of the instruments on the wall. 

A girl walked around from the back and smiled at him. “Hi, how can I help you?” 

“Um, I have a lesson scheduled?” Phil asked. It was obvious at this point that he was nervous. 

Nodding, she went to the computer and checked a few things. “Phil? Right?” 

“Yeah, that’s me.”

“Good,” She chirped and typed a few things in. “Did you do the paperwork yet about just dumb technical stuff?”

He nodded. “I filled it all out online when I went ahead and uh... and scheduled a lesson.” 

“Okay, well, you can just have a seat then. Dan should be out to get you shortly.” She told him and disappeared again in the back. 

Phil went and took his guitar off his back and sat it between his legs as he sat on the chair. He pulled his phone out and played on it for a couple of minutes until someone called his name.

“Hey, you must Phil,” the guy said, walking over. Phil shoved his phone quickly in his pocket and stood up. “I’m Dan. Nice to meet you.” 

He reached out to shake Phil’s hand, and Phil obliged. 

“Phil.” He said. “Wait, you already knew that. Uh, never mind.” 

Dan just chuckled. “Well, you can follow me back this way and we can get started, yeah?” 

Dan turned and headed back. Grabbing his coffee, Phil followed Dan back through the shop and up the stairs. They went back through the hall and then Dan led Phil into the room. Phil looked around as Dan told him to have a seat. There was a desk with a computer, in the corner music stands. A closet with what Phil assumed would have books or instruments in it. And then in the corner, there was an old piano. 

Sitting on the couch, Phil set his guitar on the floor between his feet again and his coffee on the small stand, and Dan took a seat at the desk. 

“Okay, so,” Dan muttered under his breath and typed a couple of things into the computer. “Let me get you a book, and do you have a pick?” 

Phil nodded, before realizing that Dan wasn’t looking at him. “Oh, um, yeah, I have a couple in my case.”

“Good, good,” Dan said and went over to the closet. He opened the doors, and Phil tried to look inside. He could just see cases and a bookshelf. Dan grabbed two books, one brand new and one older and beaten up. “This will be your copy.” Dan smiled. 

Phil nodded and politely smiled and took the book from him. He opened it and was met with a lot all at once. Dan went and pulled his chair in front of where Phil was sitting. He went and got his own, or at least Phil assumed it was his own, guitar case and sat it on the floor. Dan briefly went over how for this lesson they would just go over some basics. Mainly the anatomy of a guitar, the strings, how to hold and tune his guitar. 

Phil was excited though. He’d been dying to learn how to play for a while now. So now that it was happening he was excited. Instructing Phil to go ahead and get his guitar out, he did so and laid it on his lap. He could see his reflection in the body of it. Dan quickly went over the parts of it with him. The body, bridge. The pickguard and soundhole. The frets and neck board and then finally the headstock and tuning keys. 

“With the strings, it starts with the thinnest and counts up to the thickest,” Dan told him. Phil nodded in response. 

The lesson breezed by for Phil. So much that he was kind of, well, kind of sad that it was over. He had managed to properly hold the guitar, and he was getting the hang of that rather quickly. This was one of the times that he was thankful that he was a fast learner. It meant he would have an easier time at least holding the guitar without Dan there. 

Dan had gone over in-depth on how to tune his guitar. So much that by the third time he was going over it, Phil managed to tune a few of the strings properly. 

“Well,” Dan started and put his guitar back in the case and had Phil do the same. Phil also put his book in his guitar case since it fit snug. He closed it and did the clasps and put it on his back. “For next week just keep practicing tuning, and I want you to try to play the C chord from the book.” 

Phil nodded, “Would.. would this time next week work?” He asked, worried that Dan would say that he was booked up somehow. 

“Ummmm,” Dan said, dragging the “m” out. He pushed himself in his chair over to the computer and double-checked something. “Yep, that would be perfect actually. I’ll put you in now actually.” 

Smiling, Phil thanked Dan once again, to which he had just told him it was no problem, and headed out. Phil saw the same girl he saw when he came in earlier. He politely smiled and said goodbye. She just said “see you next week” and Phil headed out. He didn’t get very far until he heard someone calling after him. 

Turning around Phil saw Dan walking towards him with his coffee in his hand. Oh. His cheeks went red and Dan chuckled. 

“Didn’t think you wanted to forget that,” He said, handing Phil the coffee. 

“Oh, uh, no, thank you,” Phil said. He was slightly embarrassed but he would deal with that later if he was honest. 

Dan just talked to him a minute about seeing him next week and to remember to do his practices. Phil then headed on his way back to his apartment and up the treacherous seven flight stair journey. He should have been used to it by now, but by the time he got to his door, his legs felt jelly. 

Grabbing his keys from his pocket, he unlocked the door and walked in. Taking his shoes off and leaving them by the door, he put his keys on the rack. 

“Cheesesteak,” Phil hollered and walked into the lounge. He set his guitar on the couch. “I’m home.” 

He heard the jingle of a collar and he looked back the hall and saw Cheesesteak slowly making his way out to where Phil was. Phil was greeted with a meow and he couldn’t help but smile. He picked the cat up and held him close. Cheesesteak just snuggled into him almost and Phil sat on the couch with him. He was met with another meow. Phil looked at him and smiled. 

“Did you miss me that much? I was just at my guitar lesson.” Phil told him. Excitement filled him quickly and he suddenly got the urge to tell anyone about his lesson. So he started to tell his cat. He knew that he didn’t understand a word he said, but with him in Phil’s arms, it was nice to pretend that he was listening. 

Up until his next lesson Phil practiced and practiced. He practiced so much that his fingers had started to get blisters on them and he was forced to wear band-aids on them. Which was an annoying thing in itself for Phil, as they kept coming off. But he had become a master, in his words, tuning his guitar already and holding it. 

He had also practiced the C chord Dan wanted him to. Probably more than he should have, which explained why his fingers were starting to blister. He practiced playing it while looking down at his guitar and then looking away. Phil still had trouble playing it when he wasn’t looking at the guitar itself, but that’s what practice was for, right?

That week it was the same thing. He woke up excited, yet nervous for his lesson. He went and got another coffee and headed to the music shop to meet with Dan. It was like this for weeks. Before Phil knew it, he was on his sixth lesson and was learning basic open chords. He and Dan had become, in his mind, friends. They had met up for coffee, but it was mainly to go over some stuff Phil had questions about. But still, he enjoyed it. 

Phil woke up on another Tuesday morning, excited for his lesson. He noticed that it was raining and was a bit sad about it. But it would be fine. As he was getting ready though, Phil heard his phone go off. With his toothbrush dangling from his mouth, he ran and grabbed it. Not bothering to look at the caller ID, he just answered quickly. 

“Hello?” He said quickly, running back to the bathroom. 

“Hey, this is Phil right?” Dan asked. Phil dropped his toothbrush in the sink. Dan. 

“Uh, yeah, yeah, hey.” He smiled slightly quickly grabbing his toothbrush, and cleaning it off and spitting into the sink. 

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the shop has a bad leak in the roof, so we had to close off part of the front.” Oh. “So, we’ll have to cancel for the next couple of weeks, I’m sorry.” 

Phil was silent. 

“What if we do them at my flat?” He offered and was met with silence. 

“Are you sure?” 

No. “Yeah! Totally. Just, are you allergic to cats?”

“Nah.” 

“Perfect.” 

Dan told him he would see him soon and Phil hung up. He texted Dan his address and went to get dressed. What would he even wear? Did he need to look nice since it was his house? Sighing, he just settled on some sweatpants and his old university hoodie. 

Cheesesteak walked into the bedroom and meowed. Phil turned his head. 

“Okay, okay, I’m coming.” 

Cheesesteak ran out to the kitchen and Phil followed behind him. He did their morning ritual of giving him a can of food and Cheesesteak rubbing against him until he sat his bowl on the floor. While he ate, Phil went and cleaned a bit of the living room and wiped up some of the cat hair. Cheesesteak tended to go through phases where he would shed badly and apparently this was one of those times. 

Turning an anime he had seen fifty times on, Phil just hung out on the couch until Dan arrived. It wasn’t about until halfway through the episode there was a knock on the door. Getting up, he went and answered it and Dan was standing there, holding a soaking wet umbrella. 

“Hey,” Phil said and let him in. “You can hang your umbrella on the rack to dry.” 

“Thanks,” He smiled. Phil walked into the lounge, sitting on the couch, and paused what he was watching. “This is different than what I expected.” 

Phil choked on his spit and blushed. “Uh, wh… what do you mean?” He asked Dan. 

Dan just shrugged a bit. “Nothing bad, I was just expecting more bright colors and anime things from what you’ve told me about.” 

“Oh,” Phil laughed awkwardly. 

Cheesesteak must have heard Dan, and came in. He came in and climbed onto Phil’s lap and glared at Dan. Dan just chuckled and sat on the couch. “Is he the one you asked about over the phone?” 

Phil nodded. “Yeah, this is Cheesesteak.” 

Dan stared at him. “Cheesesteak?” 

Phil nodded again. “I got him when I was seven? My mum called me Philly so I thought having a cat named Cheesesteak would go perfect.”

“Philly cheesesteak?”

“Yeah.” 

Dan laughed slightly, “That’s adorable.” 

“He’s getting old sadly, but acts like a kitten so I’m not too worried.” 

They talked about Cheesesteak for a little while. Phil told Dan how he was about 17 now, which Dan then figured out Phil was either twenty-three or twenty-four. So about a year older than himself. After a bit, Phil ushered Cheesesteak to his bed in the corner of the room and Phil goes and gets his guitar. 

“You never told me why you wanted to learn guitar, did you?” Dan asked. 

“Probably not,” Phil answered. “I was bored doing nothing when I’m not working, and since I work from home that’s often. So I wanted to take up a new hobby.” 

“So the guitar, huh?”

Phil nodded. “I wanted to learn an instrument for years now, plus I want to play Muse songs.” 

Dan’s face lit up at the mention of Muse. The two talked for a while about them, learning that they both had the same favorite album from them. It was funny to Phil that he was learning that he had a lot more in common with Dan than he thought. The thought of that comforted him a lot for some reason. It made Dan less intimidating as a teacher if he was honest. 

“Maybe,” Dan started to say and got his guitar out and began to tune it, “That can be the big project we work on.” 

“Big project?” 

Dan nodded. “With the lessons and all, I can slowly teach you how to play Uprising by them. It’ll be challenging, but fun.” 

Phil smiled. “I like that idea.” 

And he did. He liked that idea an awful lot. 


End file.
